AstroCappella: Cosmic Radio Show
Music and Lyrics by Padi Boyd
Hey Ho, did you know? That there's a universe in the radio I'm gonna tell you what you want to know About the universe in the radio Oh well a radio photon has a low frequency Corresponding to a deep voice like me Foot long wavelength, how can that be? It comes from processes having low energy A radio photon has a low frequency 'Cause it has a pretty low energy It was 1931 when Dr. Karl Jansky He's the father of radio astronomy He studied radio noise to find out what it could be And saw that it was coming from our own Galaxy He wondered what all the static could be It was the center of the Milky Way Galaxy I'm gonna tell you what you want to know I'm gonna tell you what you want to know Those long waves penetrate Earth's atmosphere Even if it's cloudy it's radio clear Observatory dishes placed far and near Let astronomers see how the waves interfere They penetrate through the atmosphere Down to radio dishes placed far and near There's a lot of cool gas in the Milky Way Neutral hydrogen atoms leading the way When the proton and electron spins decay It sends a really long radio wave our way And we study these photons day after day To map the regions of our Galaxy real far away The universe began with a Big Bang explosion Particles and energy in furious motion Then everything expanded and the place cooled down To three degrees K that Penzias and Wilson found Still some of those photons hanging around And that's the microwave background that COBE found That's our Cosmic Radio Show Of things about the universe we'd never know If someone hadn't built a dish and sat below To see the universe unfold in the radio Hey Ho, did you know? That there's a universe in the radio I'm gonna tell you what you want to know About the universe in the radio Imagine the wonderful things that we know By observing the sky in the radio!